The disclosures herein relate in general to medical implant based systems, and in particular to power efficiency in a medical implant based system.
A medical implant based system includes a medical controller and a medical implant. The medical implant is present inside the body of a living organism and the medical controller is external. Power consumption of the medical implant is one of the major determinants of lifetime of the medical implant. The power consumption in a medical implant transceiver forms a significant portion of the overall power consumption in the medical implant. Hence, it is desired to improve efficiency of power consumption in the medical implant transceiver to increase lifetime of the medical implant.
The power in the medical implant transceiver is utilized for performing various functions. In one example, power consumption in the medical implant transceiver is dominated by a listen mode of the medical implant transceiver. In the listen mode, the medical implant transceiver wakes up periodically, for example every 4 seconds, and searches for a signal for association. The signal for association can be transmitted for a time period greater than 4 seconds. The medical implant transceiver that wakes up at beginning of transmission of the signal for association has to wait till end of the transmission of the signal for association to perform further functions. The waiting leads to power wastage.
In another example, the medical implant transceiver searches for a poll signal when the medical implant transceiver is associated with the medical controller transceiver. In one scenario, there might be a time uncertainty between the medical implant transceiver and the medical controller transceiver which may cause the medical implant transceiver to listen to an undesired transmission, and in turn result in loss of session with the medical controller transceiver and de-association. The listen mode is then activated. Power consumed in the listen mode is higher as compared to power consumed, by the medical implant transceiver, when the poll signal is detected. In another scenario, the medical implant transceiver may not be de-associated and may not be in close proximity to the medical controller transceiver. The medical implant transceiver searches for the poll signal, based on the time uncertainty, before deciding that the poll signal is not present, which leads to power wastage. The medical implant transceiver performs the search multiple times before de-associating with the medical controller transceiver which results in power wastage. The situation worsens when the time uncertainty is large.